Spotify Removes Blood on the Dance Floor’s Music for Prohibited Content

Spotify removed every song by the electronic group Blood on the Dance Floor over the weekend, the company confirmed to Billboard and Pitchfork. Spotify also confirmed that the band’s songs were removed because of their content and not because of sexual abuse allegations against Jesus David Torres, the lead singer of the group, who performs under the name Dahvie Vanity. As Billboard reports, it seems likely that the group’s music was taken down for violating the company’s prohibited content guidelines, which forbid “infringing content” and “hate content.”

Spotify defines hate content as music that “promotes, advocates, or incites hatred or violence against a group or individual based on characteristics, including, race, religion, gender identity, sex, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation, veteran status, or disability.” Blood on the Dance Floor have multiple songs that promote violence against women (including “Revenge Porn,” “Bitches Get Stitches,” and “Sluts Get Guts”). Spotify did not specify its exact reason for the removal, other than confirming in general that it was due to the songs’ content. The company also did not comment on why other songs by other artists that promote violence against women have not been removed.

Torres was the subject of recent reports in HuffPost and MetalSucks that outlined allegations of sexual abuse, including forced vaginal, anal, and oral sex from 21 different women. Many of those women were minors at the time of the alleged incidents. HuffPost also cites a 2007 police report that claims Torres apologized to police over the phone for allegedly forcing a 14-year-old girl to perform oral sex on him. As HuffPost reports, according to the detective who spoke with him, “that apology wasn’t interpreted as an official admission of guilt because Torres was speaking over the phone—not in a formal setting. Police didn’t feel the need to bring Torres in for proper questioning due to reasons including [the 14-year-old's] reluctance to cooperate with the investigation.”

Pitchfork has reached out to Blood on the Dance Floor for further comment.

Last year, Spotify rolled out its controversial “Hate Content & Hateful Conduct” policy, in which artists such as XXXTentacion and R. Kelly were removed from the platform’s editorial and algorithmic playlists. “When an artist or creator does something that is especially harmful or hateful (for example, violence against children and sexual violence), it may affect the ways we work with or support that artist or creator,” the company said in a statement at the time.

Less than a month later, Spotify walked the policy back, announcing it was “moving away from implementing a policy around artist conduct.” Earlier this year, Spotify rolled out a “mute button” that allows users to block specific artists.